Chitraksh

Chitraksh tapped his long dark fingers on his desk, eying the messenger darkly with greenish blue eyes. "And why have you disturbed me? I thought I told the guards not to let anyone in."

Chitraksh stood, his dark cloak obscuring his lean form. "Very well then. You are dismissed." Without waiting for the messenger to leave he began to head for the throne room.

The King watched Keroon with calculating eyes. "I have an important decision for you, Captain Chirarsh." Chitraksh gritted his teeth together. The King was always getting his name wrong.

The King held up two scraps of fabric, one red and one silver. "What color do you think the uniforms of the guards should be for All Gods Day? I considered both of them on one but that would look somewhat silly. Part of the uniform is going to be green. You can't have an All Gods Day festival with no green. It wouldn't be right."

The King grunted. "Hmph. Well red it is then. I just thought that you were fond of silver, thats all. Red. Red and green. Good colors for All Gods Day. Don't forget to do your gift shopping early, Captain Chirasht. Always good to get things done early. Hmph."

"Yes, of course you are. You don't need to ask me that. Go ahead. Go buy some gifts. Or a tree. I noticed that there isn't a tree in the guard house. Go do something festive my boy."

"Something festive," growled Chitraksh as he stalked through the corridors of the guard house. "I am the Captain of the Guard, not his decorator or jester. What does he take me for?"

Chitraksh could have spit he was so angry. What had happened to his guard that they carried around presents instead of doing their job? "Back on duty!" he bellowed at the recruit. He was a staunch Drakkan, a worshiper of the two Dragon Gods and he bore the two gems in his left ear to signify this. All Gods Day... this was a celebration of the gods not included in Drakkism, the lower gods, the weaker gods. He would not celebrate the lesser gods. Only the Dragon Gods, the creators of this planet. Only they deserved his worship. He walked outside and his booted feet crunched into the newly fallen snow. He glanced over to the guards on duty and to his disgust they were singing nothing other than an All Gods carrol!

"Stop that singing!" bellowed Chitraksh. "You are not payed to sing! You are payed to guard! Do you think that you can concentrate while making that awful noise?"

Chitraksh fixed the guard with one of his famous piercing glares and he instantly stopped complaining and stood up straight. "Much better," growled Chitaksh before he stalked off.

Chitraksh wrinkled his nose as his friend, Jazen, brought him a cup of something called eggnog. Jazen sighed as he sipped at his own cup. "You know whats wrong with you, Chit?"

"You take things too seriously. I mean, look at this. Every year its the same thing. Come winter you go into doom and gloom mode just because you hate All Gods Day. Its not that bad is it? It can actually be lots of fun if you try. There is all the gift-giving and the singing and food and dancing. I just don't see what makes it such a big deal."

Chitraksh looked with his green/blue eyes straight into Jazen's brown ones. "You are against the heathen Raynarix, are you not? You are against those who worship the one goddess?"

Chitraksh banged his cup on the table. "Then how can you support this? We are worshippers of the two Dragon Gods. All Gods Day is a dishonor to them and those who practice it are pagans. What is the point of being a follower of Drakkism if once a year you throw that all away and spend the day celebrating and worshiping all the gods?"

Jazen hissed at Chitraksh, "Not so loud. I don't recall saying that you should worship all the gods. Its just a holiday, ok? We're not going to dance around a fire and make sacrifices to the Dark Goddess or anything. All we are going to do is exchange gifts and have festivities. Nothing more."

"And the All Gods trees? Don't those represent our planet of Dracania and then all the gods branching off of it? That is worship if I've ever seen it with the way you spend so much time on decorations."

Jazen was the one who banged on the table this time. "Its just a holiday! Why can't you get that? It may have started out like that once but no one cares anymore! Its just an excuse for the stores to get money and people to make merry and dnace and be silly! No one is worshipping the other gods! If All Gods Day was a problem don't you think the Elementals would have mentioned it by now?"

Chitraksh hurumphed. "Well that doesn't mean that I'm going to celebrate it." With that he got up and stomped off, leaving Jazen fuming at the table.

Chitraksh was walking through the chill streets when he heard the beating of leathery wings above his head. This was not uncommon as two of the royal family were bonded to dragons and visited town often but Chitraksh was surprised when he saw the dragon flapping down in the road in front of him. Prince A'ri hopped down from the large bronze dragon and strode up to where Chitraksh was standing. "Captain Chitraksh," he said. "My dragon, Balteth, has informed me of something quite interesting. He tells me that you would make a good candidate for bonding with a dragon."

A'ri shrugged. "You might be away for a few months or mabye even a few years. Time works differently on other planets. A few months at the very least though. If you insist upon keeping up with your duties then there is nothing that I can do to stop you but I ask that you accept this offer to be a candidate."

Chitraksh thought. He couldn't go away, even for a few months. His duty... Wait... a few months. A few months and all these festivities would be forgotten! "yes, I will go," he said before he changed his mind. A few months...

A'ri smiled. "Good then. I'll be taking you to a world called planet Icarus where you will, in effect, bond to something called a drak. Well, hop aboard and I'll be taking you!" With that Prince A'ri helped Chitraksh to board the bronze dragon adn they were off to planet Icarus and Crow's Wing Dell!